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Saturday, October 8, 2011

meisen kimono

I made the decision quit buying kimono for a while because my tansu is getting full. But I couldn't resist this very colourfull meisen kimono. The colours are bright (pink/orange) only the flowers are very blurry and what a disappointment  again,  there are damages which were not mentioned in the advert.  Still she is a beauty and looks very nice on mine "Annie". I used a orange ro obi and a pink obi age/obi jime which is a nice combination I think.

Meisen silk, generally crisp and supple, is one of the Japanese silks fabricated by weaving pre-dyed threads, utilizing the tie-and-resist ikat technique (ikat is an Indonesian term widely utilized to refer to this technique). In this process, the threads, silk or cotton, are first stretched on a frame. Selected design areas are tightly bound to prevent the dye from penetrating and the hanks of threads are immersed in the dye pots. The bound portions of the yarns resist the dye and when woven, as a result of the threads not being perfectly aligned, create shapes with charmingly uneven edges.
Other Japanese textiles that are made with variations of this technique are cotton kasuri, omeshi silk and tsumugi silk. (source: kasuri )


JJ gives it a go



Thumbs up  says JJ

Monday, September 26, 2011

New books

A few weeks ago we went to NYC and I've found a bookstore on the internet, Strand bookstore, they sell new and second hand books. Of course I wanted to check if they sold any books about kimono and yes they did. So I had to make a selection because there were many to choose from. I bought 3 books and send them to my home town.
I also visited two shops which suppose to sell kimono, one was unfortunately closed but the other one was indeed open. They sold beautiful things but really high priced, kimono were sold from 200 dollars. They sold very pretty things but not for my wallet. The lady in the store told us that a week later there was a kimonoshow in the store but our visit wasn't that long. Bummer but if you ever have the chance to visit NY,
I can recommend it,  it's a great city.

Here are the books which I bought:



Kimono and the Colours of Japan

Kimono Collection of Katsumi Yumioka







         

                         Tagasode: whoose sleeves
                                                     
                         Kimono from the Kanebo collection







Kimono Fashioning Culture







So I will have enough to read till the end of this year.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Japanese kimono presentation

Last year I was asked if I could give a presentation about the Japanese kimono. Because I was really busy at work I wasn't able to do this any earlier than today.
I had some items with me to show and Annie(my fitting doll) was with me aswell. She wore a  blue tsukesage with a white nagoya obi with flowerpattern. Luckily my BF was with me and did the hard work by bringing everything upstairs, what a sweety.
For this occasion I wore my salmon-pink hitoe which was never before worn by me, I combined it with a reddish purple antique hanhaba obi. This combination was really nice, at least I thought so.
Everything went really well and afterwords people shared there compliments and were very enthusiastic.

 






Thursday, July 14, 2011

Yukata with karuta musubi

I have a very nice yukata but never worn her until yesterday. Last weekend we were visiting some relatives so I thought why not wear my yukata. I never used this musubi before but is really simple and stays very well in place but I did use a obi jime.


かるた Karuta, loaned from the Portuguese  word meaning "card", carta.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Kin sha kimono

A few months ago I bought this kin sha chirimen kimono, she has quite some stains which I probably can't remove but she still will be a beauty with a past. There were a few damages which where not mentioned in the ad, so that was a disappointment but in the end she did find a new home with me.
I hope to wear her some day soon.


Chirimen and kin sha silks have a slightly textured surface similar to crepe, achieved by twisting the threads during weaving.
Chirimen is heavier and stronger than kinsha and plain-weave silk and drapes exceptionally well.
Kinsha is a very fine, light-weight crepe-like silk.(source: kasuri Home)



Sunday, June 12, 2011

New gagdet

Bossie got a new phone with effects so she took a picture of me, I think it's a very nice picture.
What do you think?


In this picture I look very strange but I heard bossie laugh when she saw the picture

Have a great week.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Vacation

Last year my bf and I were suppose to go to Japan, unfortunately that trip didn't went through because of the volcano eruption in Iceland http://catsandkitsuke.blogspot.com/2010/04/japan-here-we-dont-come.html.
So this year we planned our trip again but as you maybe can image the trip was cancelled by the tour operator.
We did wanted to go on  holiday because it was some time ago that we went away together. One of the countries which was on my list was Iceland so that's were we went.
How beautiful Iceland was to visit I still hope that we will have the opportunity to visit Japan someday. 
I hope you enjoy the pictures:






A path in Reykjavik between Perlan(a restaurant and museum) and the city.


















A park in the city of Reykjavik and the famous church Hallgrimskirkja.












Still water in a big national park Pingvellier.






















We did have al kind of weather so also snow when we were on the road.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Ebay

Last week I could not resist to look on ebay for something beautiful and of course there were some beautiful kimono. Stupid stupid stupid, so I did a bid for what I think is a beauty and in the end I won.
Auch my poor wallet but I have to be a girl about or otherwise don't bid.
The photo's will be shown later when the kimono has arrived in a week or two if I am lucky so I thought maybe this is a pretty alternative.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Look what the cat dragged in

Yesterday I woke up and as usually I looked out of the window not expected to see this great white animal also know as a goose.
She(or he) is beautiful and very white but also accustomed to people. Luckily we live near a great pond so she can get enough swim exercise and food.
Here's are some photo's of our stranger:





Have a great week.

Saturday, January 1, 2011